Wondered if those stars had planets too.

When Astronomers first realized that the stars in the sky were like our Sun, only more distant, they wondered if those stars had planets too. And if they have planets, is there life? Intelligent life? There's an answer - yes or no - but we don't know it yet. NASA and the European Space Agency are working on a series of space and ground-based observatories that may help get an answer soon. In just a decade, you could gaze into the night sky, locate a star, and know that there's life there. Life could be everywhere.

When Robert Zubrin imagines the human colonization of Mars, he sees us eventually terraforming the planet to make it more earthlike. In this interview with Astrobiology Magazine, Zubrin details how terraforming the Red planet might happen, and how long it could take before you can step outside your protective dome without being simultaneously flash frozen, irradiated, and asphyxiated.

The European Space Agency will sign a 1 billion Euro contract this week with EADS Space Transportation for ongoing operations of its Columbus science laboratory module for the International Space Station, and the delivery of six Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs). The first ATV flight will be in 2005, and will deliver spare parts, food, water and other supplies to the station. The ATVs will also be capable of raising the station's orbit to compensate for it gradually being slowed by the Earth's atmosphere. Columbus will be delivered to the station whenever the space shuttles start flying again.